was magnificent. Auber himself had written an organ voluntary and Jules
Cohen played it. Auber said, on going to the cemetery: "La prochaine fois
sera pour mon propre compte."

We went to a dinner at Mr. William Gudin's (he is the celebrated painter)
last night. There were the Prince and Princess Metternich, old Monsieur
Dupin, Duke de Bassano, Monsieur Rouher, Baron Rothschild, and many other
people. The gallery was lit up after dinner, and they smoked there (as a
great exception). Smoking is against Madame Gudin's principles, but not
against his, as the huge table covered with every kind of cigars and
cigarettes could bear witness. Collecting cigarettes is a sort of hobby of
Gudin's; he gets them from every one. The Emperor of Russia, the Chinese,
the Turkish, and Japanese sovereigns, all send him cigarettes, even the
Emperor. These last are steeped in a sort of liquid which is good for
asthma. Every one who could boast of asthma got one to try. I must say
they smelled rather uninvitingly. The Emperor loves Gudin dearly, and
orders picture after picture from him, mostly commemorative of some fine
event of which the Emperor is, of course, the principal figure, and
destined for Versailles later. Gudin has a beautiful hotel and garden near
us in the Rue Beaujon. The garden used to be square; but now it is a
triangle, as a new boulevard has taken a part of it. Gudin talked much
about his debts, as if they were feathers in his cap, and as for his law-
suits, they are jewels in his crown!

His famous picture of the Emperor's visit to Venice, now in the
Luxembourg, is an enormous canvas, rather _a la Turner_, with intense
blue sky deepening into a green sunset, pink and purple waves lashing the
sides of the fantastic vessel in which the Emperor stands in an opalescent
coloring. Some black slaves are swimming about, their bodies half-way out
of the water, holding up their enormous black arms loaded with chains,